U.s. Calls It `Murder`

`Spy` Tried To `Escape,` Soviets Say

March 26, 1985|By Terry Atlas, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — The United States said Monday that the Soviet Union was ``wrong, dead wrong`` in asserting that a U.S. Army officer assigned to East Germany was on a spy mission in a restricted area when he was shot to death Sunday by a Soviet soldier.

President Reagan denounced the killing as ``unjustified`` and a ``tragedy that never should have happened.`` Richard Burt, assistant secretary of state, called it ``murder`` and said the unarmed U.S. officer lay on the ground with a chest wound for an hour and died before the Soviets tried to give him medical treatement.

The U.S. and the Soviet Union released differing versions of the events leading to the death of Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., 37, a Russian-language specialist who was one of 14 Americans assigned to the U.S. Military Liaison Mission in Potsdam, East Germany.

The Soviet Embassy here said Nicholson, dressed in a camouflage outfit, had left his automobile and ventured into a prohibited military area clearly identified by signs in Russian and German. It said he was caught ``red-handed`` taking photographs and was trying to ``escape`` when a Soviet soldier shot him. The embassy said Nicholson ignored both a spoken warning and a warning shot.

But the State Department told another story, and President Reagan denied that Nicholson was a spy. ``He was doing nothing except what we`re entitled to do under the agreements`` that established the military liaison offices in the two Germanys after World War II, Reagan said.

The State Department said Nicholson, wearing an Army camouflage field uniform, was on a routine patrol to ``monitor`` Soviet military activity. The Pentagon said camouflage uniforms are standard for such officers on such missions.

Neither the embassy nor the State Department gave details about the military installation where Nicholson was shot. It is at Ludwigslust, an area of several Soviet installations 100 miles northwest of Berlin and 15 miles from the West German border. Burt said Nicholson was 300 to 500 yards from the military area and was ``not warned in any way`` before he was shot.

According to Burt, Nicholson called out, ``Jess, I am shot,`` to his driver, Sgt. Jessie G. Schatz, who then tried to reach Nicholson with a first aid kit. But more Soviet soldiers arrived and prevented him at gunpoint from leaving the car. It took 30 minutes for a Soviet medic to arrive. Then there was another ``inexplicable`` delay of a half hour while Nicholson lay on the ground with a chest wound before the Soviet medic approached him. By that time, he was dead.

Burt said the United States is continuing to review the incident, but he added that ``We are sure that no amount of further investigation will change one basic fact: That there was completely no justification for the murder of Nicholson or the use of force of any kind.`` He said the allegation of spying was ``wrong, dead wrong.``

Both sides appeared to be trying to avoid escalating the incident, which occurred at a time of gradual thawing in the chilly relations between Washington and Moscow. Burt said it is ``too early to say`` what action Washington will take in response to the incident.

Oleg Sokolov, second-ranking official at the Soviet Embassy here, met Monday with Burt at the State Department. He repeated the Soviet allegation that Nicholson was engaged in espionage but expressed his government`s official ``regrets over the death of the American military officer.``

``Shocked and saddened,`` Reagan said the incident ``would make me more anxious`` to hold a summit meeting with the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. And White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the shooting

``underscores the need for understanding and communication`` between the United States and Soviet Union. He said the incident would not deter administration efforts to reach an arms-control accord with the Soviets in Geneva.

Nicholson died just before 5 p.m. Sunday, which was 11 a.m. Sunday Washington time. Reagan was informed of the shooting between 6 a.m and 7 a.m. Monday, Washington time, by National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, who decided not to awaken the President earlier.

Under a 1947 agreement signed by the American and Soviet military commanders, Lt. Gen. C.R. Huebner and Col. Gen. M.S. Malinin, the United States, Britain and France are permitted military liaison offices in East Germany, while the Soviets have liaison officers in Frankfurt, Bunde and Baden-Baden, West Germany.

From Nicholson`s Potsdam base, he traveled throughout East Germany.

Officials didn`t dispute that the Potsdam liaison office is an intelligence-gathering post, but they said Nicholson was not a spy because he operated openly and under the framework of a treaty. They pointed out that the Soviet officers in West Germany enjoy the same freedom of travel and freedom to collect information, within certain limits.

Reagan asserted that Nicholson was ``permitted`` to photograph Soviet military activities under the terms of the 1947 U.S.-Soviet accord